For example, JP-A No. 2003-334795 describes a carrier tape and a die for use in fabricating the carrier tape, as a technique of interest regarding the present disclosure. At first, with reference to FIG. 14, the carrier tape described in JP-A No. 2003-334795 will be described.
The carrier tape 1 is provided with a plurality of housing holes 2 arranged at even intervals in the longitudinal direction. The housing holes 2 are for housing a single chip-type electronic component (not illustrated in FIG. 14) within each housing hole 2 and are provided in the carrier tape 1 in a state where the housing holes 2 penetrate the carrier tape 1 in the thickness direction. Although not illustrated in FIG. 14, a top tape and a bottom tape are attached to the upper surface and the lower surface of the carrier tape 1, respectively, in order to prevent the electronic components housed within the housing holes 2 from falling out therefrom.
The carrier tape 1 includes a plurality of feeding holes 3 arranged in parallel with the direction of the arrangement of the plurality of housing holes 2. The feeding holes 3 are arranged at even intervals at a rate of a single feeding hole per a few housing holes 2. The top tape and the bottom tape are adapted not to cover the feeding holes 3.
As described above, a single electronic component is housed within each housing hole 2 and, also, the top tape and the bottom tape are attached to the carrier tape 1, which forms a series of electronic components in a state where the plurality of electronic components are in a row.
In a process for mounting electronic components, the series of the electronic components including the carrier tape 1 is intermittently transferred by the feeding holes 3, the top tape is stripped off from the carrier tape 1 at a predetermined pickup position, and the electronic components within the housing holes 2 are picked up through vacuum suction, for example, and are supplied to a predetermined mounting position.
With reference to FIGS. 15 to 17, there will be described a carrier-tape fabrication die 4 for fabricating the carrier tape 1. The carrier-tape fabrication die 4 includes a male die 5 and a female die 6 which are provided such that they can be brought close to each other and can be separated from each other. The male die 5 and the female die 6 are illustrated in FIG. 17 and the female die 6 is solely illustrated in FIGS. 15 and 16. At first, the female die 6 will be mainly described, with reference to FIGS. 15 and 16.
The female die 6 includes a plurality of housing-hole formation concave portions 7 and a plurality of feeding-hole formation concave portions 8, as illustrated in FIG. 15. The housing-hole formation concave portions 7 and the feeding-hole formation concave portions 8, which are for forming the housing holes 2 and the feeding holes 3, respectively, described above, are arranged in a distribution state which corresponds to the positions of the housing holes 2 and the feeding holes 3 to be formed.
The female die 6 has a three-split structure and is constituted by three members 9 to 11, as illustrated in FIG. 16. The housing-hole formation concave portions 7 are formed from the combination of these three members 9 to 11.
The first member 9 has a first side surface 12 which provides a first wall surface defining the housing-hole formation concave portions 7. Further, the first member 9 is provided with the feeding-hole formation concave portions 8. The second member 10 has an L-shaped cross section and provides wall portions between respective adjacent housing-hole formation concave portions 7, namely inter-concave-portion wall portions 13. The third member 11 has a second side surface 14 which provides a second wall surface faced to the first wall surface which is provided by the first side wall 12 and defines the housing-hole formation concave portions 7.
The combination of these first to third members 9 to 11 as illustrated in FIG. 15 forms the female die 6. In the female die 6, the housing-hole formation concave portions 7 are defined by the side surface 12 in the first member, the inter-concave-portion wall portions 13 in the second member 10, and the side surface 14 in the third member 11. The combination of the first to third members 9 to 11 is employed for forming the housing-hole formation concave portions 7 as described above, in order to make the housing-hole formation concave portions 7 have an accurate rectangular lateral cross-sectional shape and, therefore, in order to make the housing holes 2 formed thereby have an accurate rectangular lateral cross-sectional shape.
When the housing holes 2 have such an accurate rectangular lateral cross-sectional shape, it is possible to stably house chip-type electronic components therein and, also, it is possible to smoothly pick up the electronic components therefrom, without necessitating significantly increasing the gaps between the inner peripheral surfaces of the housing holes 2 and the outer peripheral surfaces of the chip-type electronic components housed therein.
Further, in the case where the combination of the first to third members 9 to 11 is not employed for forming the housing-hole formation concave portions 7, it is unavoidable that larger or smaller radii of curvature are formed at the corner portions of the rectangular shape of the housing-hole formation concave portions 7, due to problems in the working. On the other hand, the feeding-hole formation concave portions 8 have a circular lateral cross-sectional shape and, therefore, can be easily formed by working and, therefore, the feeding-hole formation concave portions 8 can be simply formed in the first member 9.
As illustrated in FIG. 17, the male die 5 includes a plurality of housing-hole formation convex portions arranged therein. The housing-hole formation concave portions 7 provided in the female die 6 are to receive the housing-hole formation convex portions 15. Further, although not illustrated in FIG. 17, the male die 5 is provided with a plurality of protruding feeding-hole formation pins, which correspond to the plural feeding holes 3 to be formed. The feeding-hole formation pins are received by the feeding-hole formation concave portions 8 in the female die 6.
As illustrated in FIG. 17(A), in order to fabricate the carrier tape 1, a tape material 16 made of a cardboard, for example, is prepared, and the tape material 16 is placed between the male die 5 and the female die 6. Further, it should be noted that, in FIG. 17, the tape material 16 is illustrated with exaggeration in its thickness dimension. Exaggeration is given similarly in the other drawings illustrating the cross section of the tape material.
Next, as illustrated in FIG. 17(B), the male die 5 and the female die 6 are brought close to each other. Thus, the housing-hole formation convex portions 15 are fitted into the housing-hole formation concave portions 7 while punching portions of the tape material 16, thereby forming housing holes 2 in the tape material 16. In FIG. 17(B), broken lines indicate the punched pieces 17 resulted from the punching on the tape material 16, as a result of the formation of the housing holes 2.
Further, although not illustrated in FIG. 17(B), when the male die 5 and the female die 6 are brought close to each other with the tape material 16 sandwiched therebetween, as described above, the feeding-hole formation pins are fitted into the feeding-hole formation concave portions 8 while punching portions of the tape material 16, thereby further forming feeding holes 3 in the tape material 16.
Next, as illustrated in FIG. 17(C), the male die 5 and the female die 6 are returned to a state where they are separated from each other. A plurality of housing holes 2 and a plurality of feeding holes 3, which are not illustrated in the figure, have been formed in the tape material 16 placed on the female die 6.
Next, the tape material 16 is transferred by a predetermined distance in the longitudinal direction, through the feeding holes 3. Further, the respective processes illustrated in FIGS. 17(A) to 17(C) are repeated by interposing the process for transferring the tape material 16 in the longitudinal direction by the predetermined distance, so that the carrier tape 1 as illustrated in FIG. 14 is fabricated.